Fr. Kavanaugh was on the mark when describing
the effects of advertising on society.
Our moral values are being degraded by the bombardment of impropriety by
the media. Adler would be quick in
pointing out the reason why these messages have such a negative effect on
people. There are two main tactics
advertisers use to sell their product: either imply that their product will
bring about the achievement of a particular (usually real) good, or make their
product the object of desire, therefore making it an apparent good to
people. The problem with associating
products with the achievement of a good lies more in the realm of truth than in
good, because it lies in whether or not the product can truly live up to its
claims.
The relation between a product
and the achievement of a good is an objective truth, though the goodness of
said product may not be. The statement
that Product X will make you more popular, solve your problems, or let you lead
a happy life (statements usually implied in these advertisements) are generally
not true. When advertisers make these
statements, therefore, they are directly misleading the public. The other tactic used, however, is a bigger
problem, being not only harder to identify but having more problematic
effects. Since society likes to think of
the good as a subjective thing, it would seem to be acceptable for advertisers
to qualify their products as being good.
However, Adler shows that some goods (namely needs dictated by human
nature) are universal to all people. Advertisers
commonly exploit this by associating their products not with the apparent good
they are truly associated with, but with one of those real goods. Though these products are by no means needs,
the associations make people believe that the advertised product embodies the
good they need, and to achieve that good they must buy the product. Companies don't advertise perfumes, for
example; they advertise relationships.
They don't advertise clothing; they advertise independence. Slowly, as people hear these messages more
and more, they start associating more importance to the product than to the
good involved, like a sort of idol-worship -- and here is where the real
problems set in. Now that advertisers
have people sold on the product, they can influence people's desires. This is what Fr. Kavanaugh saw when he said
that advertising is damaging society's moral values. Calvin Klein, for example, has already become
one of those companies whose product has become more important than the good
they represent -- in other words, Calvin Klein products are now in and of
themselves the good some people try to achieve.
Thus, when their ads show immoral situations or actions (like the
infamous child pornography ads that spurred many debates and a lawsuit against
the company), people associate these immoral actions with the "good"
Calvin Klein products, and people will slowly grow desensitized to them. Advertising, therefore, plays a notable role
in the moral growth -- or stunting -- of society. Though their "job" is to make
people envision their product as good, they often make people envision the
values their ads advocate as good as well.
Advertisers therefore have a responsibility to society to advocate
proper moral values in their advertising, or at least not advocate improper
moral values. And society should force
them to uphold these proper values instead of the socially damaging ones many
advertisers now use. 
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